WEEK 21 - Don't Starve!

Week 21 | June 6, 2012 | Weight 253.3 | Loss of 2.2 lbs | Total Loss: 57.3

Sorry for the late post.  I've been sick for the past couple of days and just hadn't gotten myself into it.  That said, I've been doing my very best to keep eating normally as per my regular routine and see another great loss.  I'm feeling much better now and did not put any back on which is great.

I wanted to dedicate this post to some people that are a little confused about this "diet".  First and foremost, I am not dieting.  I have "a" diet that I follow pretty well most of the time which consists of healthy eating with portion control but by no means am I hungry or starving or craving anything.  After 6 months now, I'm in a pretty good groove and my body is very happy with it.

The next point I'd like to make is that IF you are going to diet, don't starve or deprive yourself - doing so will only lead to failure.  Sure you're going to lose the first 20 from water and by going hungry, but your body WILL fight you on this.  Here is an example:  I eat over 2300 calories per day.  My wife, who is 5' 4" and less than 155 pounds, eats over 1700 calories per day.  We BOTH are losing weight regularly.  Why?  Because we don't cheat and go over by a ton.  It's easy not to cheat because we get plenty of calories each day to satisfy pretty much most things we want.  Heck, I'm having pizza tonight and I have it every Wednesday night LOL.

I'm seeing people who are 6 feet tall, over 200 pounds and a calorie limit between 1000 and 1500 each day.  Are you insane?  You're depriving yourself and you can't and won't sustain it.  Yes, you'll lose for a while just like every magazine cover you see at the grocery store on how to lose 20 pounds in weeks!  Yes you will do that very thing and that's how, BUT after that, you will be in for trouble.  You'll plateau and will just end up fighting your body, cheat due to the deprivation and fail.  Don't starve yourself - you don't need to.

My advice to you is before you even change your lifestyle is to just count the calories you are eating.  Eat the same way you always do, and just count them - accurately.  I find it amusing that I told someone recently to actually measure their food and find out the proper calorie and nutrition information rather than use someone elses database and sure enough, the next day, I see them log 5 ounces of chicken that was 75 calories wrong.  Sigh.  Yes, your budget is too low, but in your case it won't matter because you're not counting accurately anyway LOL.

Don't diet - change your life!  What I'm eating today, I'll be happy eating 5 years from now - you can too!